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South Outs

Film and Audio Not in Finished Films: Mississippi 1963/1964:

Fannie Lou Hamer and Charles McLaurin in a screen shot from South Outs by Harvey Richards. Mississippi, 1964

Harvey Richards filmed and recorded sound in Mississippi as part of his film making in 1963 and 1964 in cooperation with Amzie Moore and SNCC. This DVD contains his outs, materials not used in his films We’ll Never Turn Back,Dream Deferred and Freedom Bound. The South Outs DVD is available for licensing and viewing through the Harvey Richards Media Archive. The menu in the DVD lists some, but not all, of the shots contained in the DVD. The sound recordings are separate from the film images but presented together on the DVD.

Film images in South Outs were made possible through the cooperation of Amzie Moore, a resident of Cleveland, Mississippi, and long time NAACP leader who had helped the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Bob Moses in his work in the state. E.W. Steptoe, another local leader of the NAACP and associate of Amzie Moore, used his farm in the southern part of the state as a location to gather activists and help plan and prepare for the film. Amzie Moore took Harvey Richards into his circles. He brought people into remote farm houses, posted look outs in the early morning hours when the filming occurred. Thanks to Amzie Moore, Harvey Richards was able to capture the heart of the freedom movement among the African American farmers and activists who risked everything to break segregation and achieve freedom in their own life times. Photo images of the 1963/1964 film trips are posted on this website as well.